A wide variety of display devices including shelves having guide members or other means forming channels for containing and guiding the movement of products thereon and therebetween have been designed and manufactured for use in merchandising shelved products to consumers. See, for example, the display units disclosed in Applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,801,025, 4,454,949 and 4,478,337. Changes in consumer tastes have caused an evolution towards taller product packages, especially taller soft drink containers, which taller containers tend to be more top-heavy and more unstable. A problem which has now been encountered with the known prior art display devices and, in particular, when merchandising products therefrom in a gravity feed application, is that such taller products now have a greater tendency to tip over the conventional guide channel wall means presently in use. This is particularly true because most of the prior art guide channel wall means were designed for accommodating and guiding the movement of shorter product containers. For instance, a recent shift in consumer demand towards taller 20 oz. individual single serve soft drink bottles from the prior used and shorter 12 oz. and 16 oz. bottles, and towards the taller 2 and 3 liter bottles from the smaller 1 liter bottles, has led to a greater incidence of the taller bottles tipping over the channel guide members and side walls of existing product merchandising units which were specifically designed for use with the smaller product containers. This is particularly true of the relatively new 20 oz. single serve petaloid bottle presently used in the soft drink industry since use of the petaloid bottom on a taller product container makes the taller container particularly unstable when sliding forward on track means within a particular guide channel in a gravity feed situation.
The above-discussed problem has led to increased product breakage and loss; it has lessened the attractiveness of the individual product displays; and it has required more frequent sorting and reorganizing of the shelved products. This problem has also been found to impede access to the products located on the shelf members and, as explained above, it greatly disrupts the free flow of the products in gravity feed applications. Taller products located on shelf members inclined for automatically gravity feeding the products to the front of the unit also present still another problem in that such taller products have a further tendency to also tip over the lower front wall construction of such prior art units, depending upon their particular construction.
Various means have been designed to alleviate the above-described problems associated with the prior art product merchandising display units, but all such means still suffer from certain disadvantages and shortcomings. In particular, many of such prior art guide channel divider means still provide a relatively low wall portion which is not of sufficient height to alleviate the aformentioned problems when merchandising the taller product containers. With respect to those prior art units which have provided taller divider walls or other divider means so as to contain and support the taller product containers to prevent them from tipping over, such taller divider means are of a rigid construction and such rigid taller divider means extend uninterrupted the full length, or at least a substantial portion of the full length, of the particular unit between its front and rear wall portions. Since the shelf members with which such prior art taller divider means are used are generally of a molded plastic construction, such units have a tendency to deflect or sag towards their center when fully loaded. This causes the uninterrupted rigid taller divider wall members to twist, bend or otherwise deform when such units are fully loaded, unevenly loaded, or insufficiently supported. This can result in what is known as "fish-tailing" which is the bowing or warping of the divider wall portions or other guide channel wall means whereby portions of the divider walls extend into the respective guide channels and interfere with the flow of products along and through such guide channels by pushing against and binding or squeezing the product containers positioned therewithin. This prevents the free movement of such product containers within such guide channels, particularly, in a gravity feed application. This is also particularly problematic in regard to shelf members used and supported as the upper tiers of multiple tier product merchandising displays. Taller products are also generally heavier than the shorter products and their additional product weight likewise contributes to the sagging and deformation of the shelf members.
Various prior art means intended to address the tendency of the taller product containers to tip over the lower front edge portion of prior art units when inclined in a gravity feed orientation also suffer from certain disadvantages and shortcomings. In particular, shelf members used in a gravity feed application typically include an opening provided through the front wall of the shelf member adjacent each respective guide channel to enable both product visibility and accessibility from each particular guide channel. The prior art means attempt to prevent products from accidentally falling or tipping forward through these front wall openings by using a wide variety of front wall means, particularly additional wire means, which bridge or cross these openings. However, these additional front wall stop means typically also obstruct access to the respective guide channels and make the products positioned therewithin more difficult to remove therefrom. These additional stop means also tend to cover the product labels and other signage on the products which often times is unacceptable to merchandisers. For these and other reasons, these solutions to the above-described problems have enjoyed only limited success.